“Absurdism” sounds like a peculiar word. When I was first introduced to the word, I confused it with surrealism. I thought the Absurd was anything uncanny and incoherent (these are, properly speaking, traits of the surreal), when really, the Absurd refers to the disconnect between a human’s need for truth and meaning, and the universe’s inability to provide humans with an objective truth or meaning to life. It refers to the fact that everyone will leave this earth without discovering a true universal meaning to life, despite humanity’s ardent desire for such a revelation. Despite absurdism having decreased in popularity since its inception, it paved the way for what we see now as the ideal that nobody can create meaning in your life but yourself. On that account, I believe that absurdism, despite not being a flawless philosophy, can still guide us in how we live our lives, especially in the present day.
Absurdism was born in the 19th century, through the works of philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopenhauer and most notably, Albert Camus. Perhaps the most common metaphor for absurdism is the myth of Sisyphus. In Camus’ essay, aptly titled “The Myth of Sisyphus”, he describes the story of Sisyphus, who was punished by Zeus to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. He compares our lives to that of Sisyphus, and oftentimes we do feel as if day after day we do the same meaningless tasks and carry out the same fruitless routines. Simply put, in those moments, what we are feeling is the absurdity of life.
But Camus’ original essay did not set out to introduce the world to this feeling of the Absurd. It had already been introduced by philosophers like Kierkegaard, Jaspers and Heidegger, all of which had their suggestions on what to do when faced with the absurdity of life. What Camus set out to do was to consider these philosophers’ suggestions and provide his own view on how to deal with the Absurd. Camus assumes that life lacks inherent meaning due to the fact that the thousands of years of philosophy have not been able to come to a sound conclusion on the objective meaning of life, as well as the fact that most philosophers who claim to have found the meaning of life often base their arguments on supernatural forces like God, and Camus refuses to make the assumption that God could be real. From there, he attempts to push the arguments made by these past philosophers one step further, and directly set out to consider whether one should commit suicide since life is meaningless.
The notion of considering the act of suicide from a nihilistic perspective might sound unorthodox, but Camus eventually realises that suicide is an unjustified way of facing the Absurd because it is a confession that life is too much to bear. Furthermore, stemming from his pessimism towards the supernatural, he does not dare to make the assumption that whatever occurs after death would be better than life.
When faced with the Absurd, Kierkegaard, in Camus’ eyes, would have us take a leap of faith and believe in a God. In fact, even philosophers from the Age of Reason like Descartes or Hume believed in a God. Yet, knowing Camus, he would not accept this leap of faith. He termed it “philosophical suicide” to give up on pursuing the Absurd to the very end and subscribing instead to a belief that cannot be confirmed. What then should one do when faced with the absurd?
Revolt is the solution Camus would adopt. Revolt entails first recognising the absurdity of life, and then accepting it. This absurdity cannot be resolved, but we should not ignore it; instead it is of utmost importance to bear it in the back of our minds at all times. Only then can we seek out freedom and passion. Living in a democratic age, we might believe ourselves to have plenty of freedom now, but the freedom Camus describes is a different sort of freedom. It is a freedom unbound by societal norms or the expectations we set for ourselves. It is the purest form of freedom where we would literally be capable of allowing ourselves to do anything. To indulge in this ideal, the values that we know like kindness, humility and loyalty would be ironically of no value to a person adopting this ideal of freedom, and the only compass guiding us would be passion. By this ideal of freedom, anything we want to do in the moment, we should do, because life is meaningless and long-term considerations are meaningless anyways.
This is where it should be noted that I do not agree with Camus’ way of living life entirely. The ultimate freedom Camus describes is only an ideal in our modern world, because the punishment of breaking laws and societal expectations is a greater restriction of freedom. If one were to do whatever they liked and harm anyone, steal from anyone or kill anyone, they would be thrown in prison. Camus’ form of ultimate freedom is thus narcissistic and benefits the self only in the short-term. This is why I consider this ideal of freedom as nothing but an ideal. Living without values is living lawlessly. It is treading a dangerous path that has been laid out centuries before us. It is terribly hard to live life as a walking contradiction, but our personal lives must be put in balance with the larger picture. In this view alone, I have already adopted the value of being considerate, but it is necessary to consider the greater world we live in because ultimately, it does impose certain restrictions on us that are hard to escape.
Still, we can reap benefits from absurdism. Although there might be no objective meaning to life, there are still ways of creating a sense of meaning in life and accepting the Absurd that do not include seeking narcissistic freedom. I think the most important thing absurdism teaches us is to live in the now. If life has no meaning set out for us, it is then up to us to create our own sense of meaning, and the best way to do this is really to live every moment as it is. To create the most sense of meaning is to have lived the most, and to have lived the most is to be aware of each and every moment, and not to take these moments for granted.
To be aware of every living moment takes effort. It is no easy feat. It requires a conscious attempt to be mindful of your surroundings. I have found that consciously taking note of the things that are happening around me one by one, from the macro-scale to the micro-scale helps in grounding myself in the moment whenever my worries about the past or future threaten to engulf me. By noticing the things and people around you, you can better appreciate and savour the moment.
Mindfulness, gratefulness and open-mindedness are the values that one should adopt when facing the Absurd. These traits let our lives feel more fulfilled in the face of endless waves of existential crises and especially in the present day, absurdism remains relevant to our lives, teaching us to never give up when the situation seems meaningless. Through all the chaos and messiness of modern life, absurdism allows us to really live in the present.
